Were you talking about anyone else on Monday? Mitt Romney orNewt Gingrich facing off in New Hampshire today? Your boss?President Obama's new chief of staff? Doubtful.

The Denver Broncos quarterback -- a fervid evangelical with more devotion than downfield passing skills -- took 11 seconds to rip off the longest overtime touchdown pass in the shortest overtime in playoff history Sunday night, lofting his team into the second round of the NFL playoffs.

"Hyperbole is almost impossible," says Tom Krattenmaker, author ofOnward ChristianAthletes. "His piety and his outspoken evangelical commitment are interesting, but they wouldn't matter if not for the incredible drama and success he brings to the football field."

Now, Tebow talk has swept the nation.

• His against-all-odds heroics brought CBS a mind-blowing 25.9 overnight rating, the best for a wild card football game in almost 25 years

• Sports websites staggered under an onslaught of hits. NFL.com reported views of videos in the hour after the game up 385% over Wild Card Sunday last year.

• Tebow hit more than 1 million mentions on Twitter. Sunday night, the rate of tweets announcing the victory hit 9,420 per second. The all-time record was set last month when a TV screening of Japanese movie drew 25,088 tweets-per-second. But Tebow still beats the 8,868 tweets-per-second rate reached when Beyoncé announced her pregnancy during the2011 MTV Music Awards.

• Both Tebow and his favorite Bible verse, John 3:16 (proclaiming Jesus' promise of salvation), were in the top three Google Trends throughout most of Monday. Many people noted he threw for exactly 316 yards, an unintentional allusion to the Bible verse he etched into his eye black while winning national championships at the University of Florida.

• NFL sales of Tebow's No. 15 Broncos jersey are second only to those for Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, who won the Super Bowl last year.

But the Tebow wave was rolling well before Sunday.

Click here to continue reading... 

SOURCE: Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY